I feel that after having a summer break and not needing to reflect on my whole life over summer, it had affected the quality of my writing in the reflective journal. I still feel I expressed myself well in my writing and try to cover most things related to the Foundation Degree and life at college, but the whole structure of this seems a little bit more descriptive than my writing last year. I also feel that a lot of these entries remain unfinished, because the reflective journal can be a hard thing to concentrate on for long periods of time, so I could have digressed onto something else.
Another thing that is worth noting is the lack of entries on the reflective learning journal before Christmas. I think this must have been because the reflective learning journal didn't feel as enforced as before, and I think I felt reasonably happy at college in this part. Still, it would have been nice to have looked back on the projects I was doing at this time, as I remember they were both very fascinating projects that I really enjoyed doing. It would have been interesting to have seen the progress of these projects, what problems I faced, and what had improved since the first year. I remember I could definitely work much quicker than I could in the first year, even though I couldn't remember all I had learned in Maya.
As with the final journal of the first year, there are a lack of pictures to explain my work and the progress of my work. To be honest, looking back, this is something I definitely should have included in my journals as it would have made the journal easier to follow and to understand for the reader.
However, it is good that this journal remained much more positive than previous journals, despite the lack of entries. I felt a lot more involved with social discussions in class, and this could have been because there were less people and more friendly people in the class than there was in the first year. I also came up with some really good ideas for projects, and approaches and inspirations for these projects. e.g. the Dragon Mascot project, and when drawing the different designs asking for public feedback from a local football team, who I was designing the mascot for, and my friends on Facebook. I have since also found Pinterest very useful, not only for my projects this year (especially my dragon project), but for personal use and interest as well (hence why it is called P-Interest. it's very Pinterest-ing.) Another thing which I feel adds to the beauty of Pinterest is that all your favourite photos are saved online, rather than on your computer storage space, and knowing from personal experience, image files can take a lot of storage space on a computer.
I also feel that I was getting on much better with the students and Neil, and I found it much easier to get to know some of these students during this time. This could have been because there were less students in the Contextual Studies modules than there were last year (The class was at this point divided between the art and digital media students) and so it was probably easier for the lecturers to help us from this point.
Thursday, 10 April 2014
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
New Media Year 2 Week 3 Thursday 26th September 2013
Today was definitely a lot better than last week already, just for the simple reason that I was not alone in my class today! Ananda was back from India, and one of my best friends Jake is on the course too, and was at college today!
This morning I told Neil what I had done to prepare for today, and he seems really pleased with my progress on this project. To be honest I am too, I feel I've worked very hard this week, and I think my hard work has really paid off!
I spent this morning planning on how I am going to model my dragon character by sketching front and side views of the winning design of the dragon mascot chosen by the football club I'm designing this mascot for, to get me used to what shapes I will need to model. However, Neil did give me a few useful tips this morning. He told me that sketches can be as scruffy as I like them to, (I'm a bit of a perfectionist when drawing, so I'm usually quite scruffy at drawing at first, but then I neaten my drawing up a lot.) and advised me not to model my dragon using the box method I learned last year and to just model my dragon from observation. (I'll have to look it up or look back to my previous journal entries from last year to find out what it's really called, and how to do it again if I ever need to)
This morning I told Neil what I had done to prepare for today, and he seems really pleased with my progress on this project. To be honest I am too, I feel I've worked very hard this week, and I think my hard work has really paid off!
I spent this morning planning on how I am going to model my dragon character by sketching front and side views of the winning design of the dragon mascot chosen by the football club I'm designing this mascot for, to get me used to what shapes I will need to model. However, Neil did give me a few useful tips this morning. He told me that sketches can be as scruffy as I like them to, (I'm a bit of a perfectionist when drawing, so I'm usually quite scruffy at drawing at first, but then I neaten my drawing up a lot.) and advised me not to model my dragon using the box method I learned last year and to just model my dragon from observation. (I'll have to look it up or look back to my previous journal entries from last year to find out what it's really called, and how to do it again if I ever need to)
New Media Year 2 Week 3 Wednesday 25th September 2013
To prepare for this week, I have been super busy with my college projects. For Wednesday (25/09/13) I had to write a project proposal for a project I could work on for college after half term, and I had to make a PowerPoint presentation about this too. I did find this quite challenging, and I felt I ended up repeating myself quite a lot in my proposal, but I have had a few clear ideas of possible projects I could work on for 6 weeks after half term. However I felt that a lot of the projects ideas I've had would probably take me longer than 6 weeks, so I've decided to make some concept designs of vehicles for a kart racing game, model them in 3D, and if I have time, design a race track, which should be 6 weeks worth of work.
I've also made a good start on my current project for the Understanding the Media 2 module, which is to design and model a dragon mascot for a local football team for children and young adults with special needs which my dad sometimes volunteers to help at. So far I have gathered a lot of research of dragon characters and mascots, and also found out a lot about the football club I'm designing the mascot for.
I also spent a morning this week at the Stoke campus at Staffordshire University, to collect a couple of library books and also to do a bit of work quietly by myself. Dad kindly offered to take me, because he had a meeting near Stoke that morning.
On Wednesday I presented my project proposal for after half term to the class and Neil, which I felt was quite exhausting, as I do find presenting my work quite difficult, because I don't know how people will react. My mouth started going very dry whilst presenting my work and having to talk about it, and I did feel the presentation was a bit too long for me to talk about it, and I did feel that the presentation did repeat itself a bit. However, I did feel quite pleased with the feedback I was given from Neil. He seemed happy with the project I was given, but he just gave me some tips on how to improve my proposal. Even though I did have some references already, he would have liked me to have more references, and for me to explain more why I've chosen this project to work on. I did feel that this was very reasonable, and I feel I can definitely put this into my work. It was also reassuring to know that the other people in my class had similar feedback, although I did feel that their presentations had a lot more detail in them than mine. I probably felt this way because I probably do often compare myself and my work/confidence/the way I deal with things to others, which I know can be silly, but I feel that sometimes I can't help it. For next week I will have to work on my proposal based on my feedback from Neil, and send it to him for further feedback. He did ask us to start this during the lesson, but I felt I couldn't focus on this all that much, possibly due to how drained I felt from the presentation, so I decided to work on other things, such as my journal. However, just going slightly off topic, I have some new earphones, which I am really happy with. Not only are they Sonic the Hedgehog themed, but I can also hear what's going on around me, as well as my music, which doesn't normally happen with my earphones. Normally I wouldn't be able to hear anything else if I was listening to music.
On Wednesday afternoon I finished my concept dragon sketches, four in total, ready for feedback from the football club later that night. I also managed to see one of my best friends who was back from his apprenticeship in Norfolk this afternoon, before presenting the sketches to the football club. My dad kindly offered to take them on my behalf, and we thought of the idea of a scoring system to see which design the club liked the best. This was very well received, and I am pleased with their feedback, as it gives a much more honest response than just choosing a design myself. To be honest I was happy with all my designs, but I can understand why people voted for the most popular design, because I drew a football in that design, so it was a lot clearer what the design was for. I did find some of the feedback funny though (the good kind of funny). Someone said that one of my designs looked a bit like the dragon on the flag of Wales, which is fair enough, I see why they would say that, but I think that's because of the pose I drew that dragon in. Someone also said that another one of my designs looked like a Superhero, another said that it reminded him of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because that dragon had a mask on. I also asked some of my friends and family which design they liked best, and posted my designs on Facebook to see if I would get any responses.
Speaking of social networking, I've started taking an interest in Pinterest again, which is basically a picture bank of pictures you like that you see on Pinterest and the internet in general. I've actually saved some of the images I've used for my research onto one of my "boards" on Pinterest, and the website also references where you got the pictures from too!
I've also made a good start on my current project for the Understanding the Media 2 module, which is to design and model a dragon mascot for a local football team for children and young adults with special needs which my dad sometimes volunteers to help at. So far I have gathered a lot of research of dragon characters and mascots, and also found out a lot about the football club I'm designing the mascot for.
I also spent a morning this week at the Stoke campus at Staffordshire University, to collect a couple of library books and also to do a bit of work quietly by myself. Dad kindly offered to take me, because he had a meeting near Stoke that morning.
On Wednesday I presented my project proposal for after half term to the class and Neil, which I felt was quite exhausting, as I do find presenting my work quite difficult, because I don't know how people will react. My mouth started going very dry whilst presenting my work and having to talk about it, and I did feel the presentation was a bit too long for me to talk about it, and I did feel that the presentation did repeat itself a bit. However, I did feel quite pleased with the feedback I was given from Neil. He seemed happy with the project I was given, but he just gave me some tips on how to improve my proposal. Even though I did have some references already, he would have liked me to have more references, and for me to explain more why I've chosen this project to work on. I did feel that this was very reasonable, and I feel I can definitely put this into my work. It was also reassuring to know that the other people in my class had similar feedback, although I did feel that their presentations had a lot more detail in them than mine. I probably felt this way because I probably do often compare myself and my work/confidence/the way I deal with things to others, which I know can be silly, but I feel that sometimes I can't help it. For next week I will have to work on my proposal based on my feedback from Neil, and send it to him for further feedback. He did ask us to start this during the lesson, but I felt I couldn't focus on this all that much, possibly due to how drained I felt from the presentation, so I decided to work on other things, such as my journal. However, just going slightly off topic, I have some new earphones, which I am really happy with. Not only are they Sonic the Hedgehog themed, but I can also hear what's going on around me, as well as my music, which doesn't normally happen with my earphones. Normally I wouldn't be able to hear anything else if I was listening to music.
On Wednesday afternoon I finished my concept dragon sketches, four in total, ready for feedback from the football club later that night. I also managed to see one of my best friends who was back from his apprenticeship in Norfolk this afternoon, before presenting the sketches to the football club. My dad kindly offered to take them on my behalf, and we thought of the idea of a scoring system to see which design the club liked the best. This was very well received, and I am pleased with their feedback, as it gives a much more honest response than just choosing a design myself. To be honest I was happy with all my designs, but I can understand why people voted for the most popular design, because I drew a football in that design, so it was a lot clearer what the design was for. I did find some of the feedback funny though (the good kind of funny). Someone said that one of my designs looked a bit like the dragon on the flag of Wales, which is fair enough, I see why they would say that, but I think that's because of the pose I drew that dragon in. Someone also said that another one of my designs looked like a Superhero, another said that it reminded him of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because that dragon had a mask on. I also asked some of my friends and family which design they liked best, and posted my designs on Facebook to see if I would get any responses.
Speaking of social networking, I've started taking an interest in Pinterest again, which is basically a picture bank of pictures you like that you see on Pinterest and the internet in general. I've actually saved some of the images I've used for my research onto one of my "boards" on Pinterest, and the website also references where you got the pictures from too!
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
New Media Year 2 Week 2
18/09/13
Today I felt a little bit under prepared, because I haven't done a lot of research for this module yet, but I planned to go to the University Library to see if any books on the book lists for my current modules were available this afternoon.
I think that there was an expectation for us to have at least done some research by now, even though this is only our second week back at college since summer, as our first task was to split into groups and make a list of things required to write a good proposal. (there were only 4 of us and I'm the only second year New Media student at college right now. Ananda, the other second year New Media student should be coming back soon.) Because I hadn't done a great deal of research other than what's been mentioned in last week's lecture, I just had to use what I already knew to help write the list. Luckily, the person I was paired up with, a photography student who I think is called Michael, seemed to know what he was doing. He seems to be a bit quieter and more studious than the other photography students, but he seems nice enough. I actually found this task quite easy, and I'm happy that I could use my knowledge and imagination to think of good answers, and I felt that together, we managed to put together quite a decent list.
19/09/13
This Thursday was certainly a very weird and daunting day, as I was the only person from the course that actually attended college today! It also was a bit intimidating that all the attention from Neil and Lynda was focused on me as well, but I suppose this couldn't be helped. I also didn't really sleep well the night before, so that didn't help things either.
I suppose I did feel a little bit disappointed that I was alone at college all day as well.
This morning I discussed with Neil what project I'd like to work on for the next 6 weeks or so until half term.
Today I felt a little bit under prepared, because I haven't done a lot of research for this module yet, but I planned to go to the University Library to see if any books on the book lists for my current modules were available this afternoon.
I think that there was an expectation for us to have at least done some research by now, even though this is only our second week back at college since summer, as our first task was to split into groups and make a list of things required to write a good proposal. (there were only 4 of us and I'm the only second year New Media student at college right now. Ananda, the other second year New Media student should be coming back soon.) Because I hadn't done a great deal of research other than what's been mentioned in last week's lecture, I just had to use what I already knew to help write the list. Luckily, the person I was paired up with, a photography student who I think is called Michael, seemed to know what he was doing. He seems to be a bit quieter and more studious than the other photography students, but he seems nice enough. I actually found this task quite easy, and I'm happy that I could use my knowledge and imagination to think of good answers, and I felt that together, we managed to put together quite a decent list.
19/09/13
This Thursday was certainly a very weird and daunting day, as I was the only person from the course that actually attended college today! It also was a bit intimidating that all the attention from Neil and Lynda was focused on me as well, but I suppose this couldn't be helped. I also didn't really sleep well the night before, so that didn't help things either.
I suppose I did feel a little bit disappointed that I was alone at college all day as well.
This morning I discussed with Neil what project I'd like to work on for the next 6 weeks or so until half term.
Tuesday, 17 September 2013
New Media Week 1 Year 2
11/09/13
Ok, I shall be honest, I was feeling quite nervous coming back to college this year, especially because of some of the stresses of last year. I also feel that it might initially be quite hard to get back into the routine of college again, with waking up earlier, and getting used to the workload of college again. However, this year I do hope to learn from these stresses, and become a bit more open minded to suggestions and criticism from the lecturers.
I got to college on Wednesday, not really knowing what to expect, but for some reason I certainly didn't expect to see the Foundation Degree Photography students, and my college support, Lynda in my class. However, everybody seemed very happy to see me after a very long summer, which did make me feel very welcome to be back at college.
Today was mostly about discussing what our "big ambitions" are, and we were made to make and present a 5 minute PowerPoint presentation about this. To be honest I have already given this a lot of serious consideration before and over summer, because I really don't see myself working in a very competitive industry, and I did find the workload last year very stressful (and I am quite worried that I am going to be quite stressed out at times this year, but I'll try my best to not make it as bad this year as last year.)
I have actually arranged to start a voluntary work placement at Walton Hall Special School as an assistant art therapist which should start later this month, and will last for 12 weeks. I hope to bring the art and media skills I have learned at college on both my BTEC and my Foundation Degree courses to the placement. I'm actually looking forward to starting this placement, but I am quite nervous about it too. One of the main purposes of me doing this placement is to really find out what it is I really want to do as a career, and I felt that something similar to what I'll be doing on this placement could be quite ideal, as I feel I have quite a good deal of life experience I could use to relate to other people and difficulties in their lives and to make lives better, hence I shall be a HEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I did end up speaking to the photography students quite a lot today, arguably more than I did in the entire year last year combined! This made me feel that it might be easier to talk to people now it's a slightly smaller group, even though I got on with a lot of the Foundation Degree in Contemporary Art Practice students last year that aren't in our class this year. However, Lynda did mention that the Photography students might have been quite chatty because of nerves and not really knowing what they're doing.
12/09/13
Today was our first fully practical lesson, and I was feeling a bit nervous because, truth be told, I haven't done a lot of 3D modelling practice over summer. I did feel that because of the stresses last year I probably needed a break from 3D modelling work, and I also don't know anymore how relevant 3D modelling will come into my future career now. However, I did feel at certain parts of the summer that I probably should have practiced 3D modelling a bit more, but I feel I didn't have the motivation to do so either.
However, it surprised me about how much I could actually remember in the 3D modelling program Maya. Just to get us used to Maya again, Our first task was a mock one day brief to build parts for a household robot, which we then had to model and texture, after doing a bit of research into household robots. Luckily, I remember having some robotic toys when I was younger (I probably still do have some of them!) so I used them in my research for this task.
Building the robot in Maya was a little bit confusing, because Neil mentioned that he wanted all the parts of the robot to be built separately, and I've been so used to for the past 3 years building character models as one solid model. However, I quickly adapted to this, and this is only a one off, so I will be building future models the way I'm more used to.
This morning Neil also played this documentary about household robots in the background whilst I was doing my work. Even though I was mainly focusing on my work, I did take notice of the documentary at times, and I did find it a bit freaky that places in Japan had access to this technology. It still seems like this kind of technology is in it's early stages, but its apparent potential scares me a little, such as how they were talking about curing mental illness and replacing people's jobs, such as waiters. Another part of me thinks if this is totally necessary to have these household robots, and also if people did have them, they would probably cost a fortune!
This afternoon we were told that we could choose what we wanted to do for this module, Understanding the Media 2.
Ok, I shall be honest, I was feeling quite nervous coming back to college this year, especially because of some of the stresses of last year. I also feel that it might initially be quite hard to get back into the routine of college again, with waking up earlier, and getting used to the workload of college again. However, this year I do hope to learn from these stresses, and become a bit more open minded to suggestions and criticism from the lecturers.
I got to college on Wednesday, not really knowing what to expect, but for some reason I certainly didn't expect to see the Foundation Degree Photography students, and my college support, Lynda in my class. However, everybody seemed very happy to see me after a very long summer, which did make me feel very welcome to be back at college.
Today was mostly about discussing what our "big ambitions" are, and we were made to make and present a 5 minute PowerPoint presentation about this. To be honest I have already given this a lot of serious consideration before and over summer, because I really don't see myself working in a very competitive industry, and I did find the workload last year very stressful (and I am quite worried that I am going to be quite stressed out at times this year, but I'll try my best to not make it as bad this year as last year.)
I have actually arranged to start a voluntary work placement at Walton Hall Special School as an assistant art therapist which should start later this month, and will last for 12 weeks. I hope to bring the art and media skills I have learned at college on both my BTEC and my Foundation Degree courses to the placement. I'm actually looking forward to starting this placement, but I am quite nervous about it too. One of the main purposes of me doing this placement is to really find out what it is I really want to do as a career, and I felt that something similar to what I'll be doing on this placement could be quite ideal, as I feel I have quite a good deal of life experience I could use to relate to other people and difficulties in their lives and to make lives better, hence I shall be a HEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I did end up speaking to the photography students quite a lot today, arguably more than I did in the entire year last year combined! This made me feel that it might be easier to talk to people now it's a slightly smaller group, even though I got on with a lot of the Foundation Degree in Contemporary Art Practice students last year that aren't in our class this year. However, Lynda did mention that the Photography students might have been quite chatty because of nerves and not really knowing what they're doing.
12/09/13
Today was our first fully practical lesson, and I was feeling a bit nervous because, truth be told, I haven't done a lot of 3D modelling practice over summer. I did feel that because of the stresses last year I probably needed a break from 3D modelling work, and I also don't know anymore how relevant 3D modelling will come into my future career now. However, I did feel at certain parts of the summer that I probably should have practiced 3D modelling a bit more, but I feel I didn't have the motivation to do so either.
However, it surprised me about how much I could actually remember in the 3D modelling program Maya. Just to get us used to Maya again, Our first task was a mock one day brief to build parts for a household robot, which we then had to model and texture, after doing a bit of research into household robots. Luckily, I remember having some robotic toys when I was younger (I probably still do have some of them!) so I used them in my research for this task.
Building the robot in Maya was a little bit confusing, because Neil mentioned that he wanted all the parts of the robot to be built separately, and I've been so used to for the past 3 years building character models as one solid model. However, I quickly adapted to this, and this is only a one off, so I will be building future models the way I'm more used to.
This morning Neil also played this documentary about household robots in the background whilst I was doing my work. Even though I was mainly focusing on my work, I did take notice of the documentary at times, and I did find it a bit freaky that places in Japan had access to this technology. It still seems like this kind of technology is in it's early stages, but its apparent potential scares me a little, such as how they were talking about curing mental illness and replacing people's jobs, such as waiters. Another part of me thinks if this is totally necessary to have these household robots, and also if people did have them, they would probably cost a fortune!
This afternoon we were told that we could choose what we wanted to do for this module, Understanding the Media 2.
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